MANCHESTER, NH – Stephen Murphy, former employee of the Youth Development Center accused of multiple rapes of a teenage boy, was found not guilty Wednesday of three of the felony charges.
The jury, however, was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining five felony counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault.
The Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury deliberated the guilt or innocence of Murphy, 56, of Danvers, Mass. over 2 ½ days before reaching a verdict on three of the charges.
Prosecutors would be able to retry Murphy on the charges in which no verdict was reached.
They have chosen to retry Murphy in another case where, last January, a jury could not reach a verdict and the judge declared a mistrial. Jury selection for the retrial is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2026.
That case involves allegations that Murphy anally raped a 14-year-old boy while another youth counselor forced the youth to perform fellatio on him. Two other staffers were accused of holding the teen down on a stairwell in East Cottage during the alleged assaults.
The second trial is scheduled for March 23, 2026 in which Murphy is charged with a pattern of aggravated felonious sexual assault of another teen.
David Meehan, 44, the alleged victim in the case decided Wednesday, went public with his allegations and testified that Murphy repeatedly raped him beginning when he was 14-years-old and ordered detained at the state-run juvenile detention facility.
Once the jury and judge had left the courtroom, Murphy tearfully hugged his attorney Charles Keefe.
Tuesday afternoon, Judge Amy Messer had called the jurors into the courtroom to explain it was OK if they reached a verdict on some of the charges but not all of them. At that time, given the judge’s comments, it appeared the jury of four men and eight women had reached verdicts on some of the eight counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against Murphy.
She encouraged them to return to the deliberation room in an attempt to reach unanimous verdicts.
They did and on Wednesday, after deliberating over 2 ½ days, were still unable to reach verdicts on five of the charges.
The charges against Murphy dated back to 1997-98.
Jurors heard testimony from both Murphy, who took the stand in his own defense, and Meehan. Murphy denied all charges against him and said they were “baseless.”
Meehan, in turn, gave graphic testimony as to what he alleges Murphy did to him, including forcing his penis down the then 14-year-old’s throat, and beating him. He testified the abuse occurred from October 1997 through May 1998.
Defense Charles J. Keefe, in his closing argument, maintained the state produced no witness and no evidence to support the allegations. He portrayed Meehan as a deeply troubled man struggling with reality, who spent up to 20 hours a day on the internet researching conspiracies and the people at YDC. He either believes what he alleges or he is making up stories, Keefe said.
Meehan, 44, was the first person to go to police in 2017 with allegations that YDC staff repeatedly raped and beat him while he was detained at the juvenile detention center from 1995 to 1998. Since then, more than 2,000 people have come forward, filing claims against the state.
Manchester Ink Link normally doesn’t identify an alleged victim of sexual abuse but Meehan went public with his allegations.
Prosecutors maintain the case was about dominance and sexual violence and that Murphy, a youth counselor who they said was supposed to mentor and guide David, instead coerced him to perform fellatio by beating him into submission.
Keefe told jurors David’s story “has shifted and changed” over the years.
Prosecutor Audriana Mekula, in her closing argument, said Meehan’s words alone are enough for convictions. But she said there is much more evidence supporting what he said including timecards and operations and communication logs.
Meehan’s recollections of when the alleged assaults took place correspond with those documents, records he did not know existed when he went to police, she said.
Mekula said Meehan came into the courtroom and told them about the most difficult, traumatic moments of his life “because they happened and because they are the truth. He told exactly how this defendant violently raped him.”
This was the third time Meehan has testified about what happened to him as a child at the YDC. He made his allegations public in 2017 because his son was in trouble and he feared he would end up in YDC, later renamed the John H. Sununu Youth Services Center, and be raped.
When Meehan contacted law enforcement, the state launched an investigation into the YDC. Ultimately, 10 men were charged with abusing children detained there.
Meehan, three years later, filed a civil suit against the state. It was the first of about 1,500 cases brought by people sent to the YDC who alleged they were physically and/or sexually abused there.
Meehan’s civil case went to trial in 2024 in Rockingham County Superior Court. The jury awarded him $38 million butithin minutes of the verdict being announced, the state contended the jury’s verdict was legally limited to $475,000. That’s because the jury form was marked to indicate the state was liable for one incident that caused Meehan’s years of suffering and mental illness. Under state law, an incident is capped at $475,000. The judge ruled for the state.
Defense attorneys are appealing the judge’s ruling.